Posts Tagged ‘rolling’

Long as I remember The rain been coming down.
Clouds of myst’ry pouring Confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, Trying to find the sun;
And I wonder, Still I wonder, Who’ll stop the rain. – ccr

After a successful day of rolling on Thursday, you wouldn’t be surprised if Mary wanted to get back out and lock in her roll the following morning.  Now, some could say that the weather didn’t cooperate but I’d say it did exactly what it should have done.  It upped the ante… Read the rest of this entry »

Come here mama….and dig this crazy scene
He’s not too fancy….but his line is pretty clean
He ain’t no drag.
Papa’s got a brand new bag
– james brown

So I know lots of folks who’ve been following along with the “Low Impact Roll” series are not rollers, or at least are not confident rollers.. yet.   Since it’s Friday I want to take a break and share with you a bit of encouragement  by way of example. Normally in the “biz” we’re in the habit of showing you experts and athletes who’ve got rolling down to an art form.  While that can be encouraging it can also be a bit intimidating as well.  So here’s a “real people” example of where we’re going.

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Hallo. Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?
It’s fun.
Roll, roll, roll in ze hay….
- young frankenstein

Yesterday said I had some fun exercises for you!  (Well, I many not have used the word, “fun” wink, wink, ….) You do know of course that we roll every day, or every night at least. In bed.  And I don’t mean a “roll in the hay” (Although I certainly am all for a good roll in the hay as well!).  But what I’m talking about here is simply the act of rolling over.  Lying on your stomach, then rolling over on your back, or conversely (Yes I do love that word!), lying on your back and rolling over on your stomach.  Have you ever taken the time to figure out how you do it?   Read the rest of this entry »

This low down bitchin’ got my poor feet a itchin’,
You know you know the duece is still wild.
Baby, I can’t stay, you got to roll me
And call me the tumblin’ dice.
-stones

Before I go too deeply into boat fit here I want to be clear I’m mostly talking about sea kayaks and to some extent white water kayaks.  Recreational boats that are shorter, wider and have a big opening on top simply will not provide the sort of fit we talk about when talking about rolling a kayak.  This does not mean you can’t roll one, but it’s a challenge to say the least.  Still, if you currently paddle one of these sorts of kayaks, you’re welcome to follow along as well.  I’m sure we’ll cross a couple of useful points for you as well.

Symbiosis

How you fit into your kayak can be seen as an issue of control.  Simply put, you need places where your body connects to the kayak in order to make it do what you want it to do.   Of course that’s a little too authoritarian for my mind. Another more organic way to look at it is that on the water you become one with your kayak, it becomes your  body, your skeletal structure and your skin. Your relationship to your craft is symbiotic.  You don’t ride in a kayak, you become one with it. You are the heart and mind of the creature, where you connect is simply the nervous system reaching out to the skin sending and receiving messages. The more connections we have the more we are able to sense our environment and control our reaction to it.  We are not paddlers but creatures of the sea.

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WarChild dance the days, and dance the nights away.
Open your windows and I’ll walk through your doors.
Let me live in your country — let me sleep by your shores.
Tull

Low impact does not mean dainty, wimpy or weak.  Low impact kayak rolling is not about modifying a powerful roll to make it easy on the old bones. If you think low impact means, low power you’re missing the point completely. What we’re really talking about is efficiency.    Read the rest of this entry »

You got me where you want me
I ain’t nothing but your fool
You treated me mean oh you treated me cruel
– Aretha Franklin

If your roll sucks I’ll know.  It’s easy.   Just put away that big blade and have a go with my Greenland paddle.  Go ahead.  C2C, Sweep, Modified Sweep.. whatever.  Ok, I’ll even give you a warm up.. If you don’t roll after 2.. Um well… there it is then.

There’s a point where most every kayak roll becomes the same. It’s right at that moment when the paddler is who upside down, decides to roll up. At that moment the first thing you do, regardless of  paddle, rolling style or technique, is roll the boat up.  That seems obvious.  Well, I’m not referring to the whole process of rolling the boat up, but only that millisecond right after the mind decides to engage the body in the process of rolling.  At that moment, it’s all about the boat.   It’s also the point where most of our energy is expended IF we’re doing it right. Read the rest of this entry »

You can poison my cat / Baby I don’t care
But if you talk in the movies / I’ll kill you right there
It’s just the little things
Yeah it’s the little things
That drive me wild
– alice cooper

Rolling a kayak is easy.  Learning it is hard.  Teaching it, even harder.  As instructors we know how easy rolling is, which can make us blind to all the little things you need to do right to get your roll consistent.  My major focus as an instructor has always been body control.  I hate the C to C roll for sea kayakers because I find it disappointing for the students and way to much fun for the instructors because they get to spend so much time talking and demonstrating.  The C to C is also all about testosterone in the beginning which runs totally against many students natures..  I could go on and on, and I will (I’m sure) but for the moment I want to tell you where I was cocking things up…   Read the rest of this entry »